Google and Reed call ceasefire

The pair are discussing joint ventures. The first provides users of Reed's Kellysearch business information website with Google's links to advertisers.

Reed lost customers to Google as subscribers tried to get the same information they found on LexisNexis without paying for it. But chief executive Sir Crispin Davis says the company has won many of them back.

'For the last year or two we have had a lot of discussion over whether Google is an ally or a competitor,' he said. 'But there is a logic to working with Google in one or two areas. Google brings its size and we bring our content.'

LexisNexis collates news from 32,000 sources and had sales of £1.25bn last year. Yahoo! and Microsoft alliances are in the pipeline.